What editor do you use? Created 7 years ago2017-11-16 15:21:14 UTC by User#6970

So far I've been using Valve Hammer 3.5.3 and I'm relatively satisfied about it. I wanted to know your thought about other editors and whether there are better alternatives. So far I heard of Jackhammer, Sledge and Valve Hammer 4.x. Any comments on these?

Currently Jackhammer is the best choice for GoldSrc mapping. You can get it for free or purchase it on Steam, the only difference between the Steam version and the free one is that the Steam version of Jackhammer constantly gets small updates, bugfixes and also has achievements. The free version hasn't been getting any updates for a while, but it's not much worse than the paid one.
It was possible to get the free version of Jackhammer on its official site, but the download link is broken at the moment. I can upload it on MediaFire for you if you wish.

Yes I'd like that very much. Thanks!

I like Sledge. It's made in house here by penguinboy. There are some tiny bugs but it's better than 3.5 by a long shot

I use Jackhammer

I use J.A.C.K. a.k.a. Jackhammer.

Also, why upload on Mediafire when you can just go to Web Archive and download from one of the earlier snapshots from this year?

I use sledge. It's got a few bugs that Hammer doesn't have but it is outweighed by all the improvements such as transparent textures actually being transparent in the editor, semi-transparent trigger and clip textures, auto vis groups, a larger and vastly improved texture browser, and more.

I alternate between Sledge and J.A.C.K

I use J.A.C.K and generally love it. However, I do quite often get a crash when opening the properties of some entities on my more complex maps. I just got used to it!

As far as I remember, that crash happens under certain conditions. I had it crash when I quickly added some entities to a VisGroup, then I hid one of the groups and unhid them, and I opened the entity properties.

A good sign of that happening would be when VisGroups just stop working, i.e. when you hide one, but they don't get hidden. In that case, save your map, then close it and open it again.

Anyone tried Valve Hammer 4.x with GoldSource?

I haven't, but I'm sure that there would be problems. Firstly with the file formats: .vmf vs. .rmf and .map
Then, there would be trouble with the FGDs, textures, models and so on...

Sledge works for me.

I just still use Hammer 3.5.2. Tried Sledge but I didn't really like the interface. Haven't tried JACK. I guess its just personal pref.

I alternate between Sledge and J.A.C.K

I Haven't tried sledge, is it preferable in some cases?

As far as I know support for sledge ceased a long time ago. Jack is still under development although even hear the last version was mid 2016 if not mistaken. The dl link on their main homepage doesn't even work anymore.

I believe Jack is superior in anyway judging by their features list. I personally still don't like it as much. As it is somewhat lagging unless hammer that moves around in the 4 windows without any frame drop.

Valve Hammer Editor 3.5 . It works on Windows 98.
QuArK , GtkRadiant .

I'm definitely going to try to run Hammer in a Windows 98 SE virtual machine.

( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Pfft virtual machine. Toshiba Tecra 8200 /w hardware OPL.

Why do people always suggest actual hardware to people who simply don't have and/or can't find that hardware anywhere? That's the reason I'll be using a VM after all!

No VM is required at all to run VHE. It ran & runs perfectly for me on win7 & win10.

Personally I'm using this:

https://gamebanana.com/tools/5538

Read the changelog. The nice thing about it is that it fixes dozens of crash bugs as well as adding 64bit support resulting in much greater compile speeds.
It also uses a much larger grid to do your mapping on. Usually the default grid is enough but sometimes you might need more.

Combine that with these compilers and get the show on the road.
additional info: https://forums.svencoop.com/showthread.php/42174-Vluzacn-s-ZHLT-v34-Update
direct dl link: https://forums.svencoop.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=16257&d=1439879328

In case you can't move in the 3D window it's probably because you're using a ATI graphic-card in that case download these dll's to fix that:

https://gamebanana.com/tools/5586https://gamebanana.com/tools/5586 But I believe that issue has been fixed by now, a long time ago.

If you're doing model work - like adding skins or new animations to preset models get the new and latest studiomdl file which fixes the famous texture shifting:

https://gamebanana.com/tools/6236

In my opinion the perfect set to do your gold source mapping unless of course you prefer JACK then you're probably better off with that instead as it adds countless more advantages to make your mappers life easy.

@23-down
You missed my point here. I clearly know that VHE 3.X can run on newer Windows OSes, because I've used it myself.

But, for the same reason as with Half-Life, I'd run VHE in a Windows 98 VM. :3